Thanks to those experiences, and many others, I quickly learned that extreme sports were for me, since I realized that I can endure the pain just fine and keep going. My brother's dad, Clarke, was the first to encourage me, but the fear of pain and not being good enough kept me out of them. Then, after 8th and 9th grade, extreme sports were all I could think about for awhile. If I zone out now, chances are, I'm planning out my next dirtbike adventure right down to the kind of oil I'll mix with the gasoline.
Extreme sports often attract people like me. In fact, extreme sports glorify the underdogs and the freaks. Metal Mulisha, one of today's most influential clothing lines in the extreme sports world, was co-founded by a kid nicknamed "Twitch", who rebelled against professional motocross when its riders were supposed to be super clean and conventional back in the 1990s. Twitch got his name because he has a bad case of Tourettes, which really showed when he was riding for Metal Mulisha. Even though he ended his career with motocross and Metal Mulisha a few years ago to become a full-time dad, he and his buddies completely changed the extreme sports world in just a few years by misspelling "Militia", drawing some graphics inspired by the helmets soldiers in WW2 wore, and putting them on T-shirts, hats, and dirtbikes.
People who liked the clean version of motocross (or just extreme sports in general) were so pissed off, that they tried (and actually still try) to slander Metal Mulisha out of existence. They've called Metal Mulisha nazis, because apparently the helmet looks like something a nazi would wear, even though pretty much every soldier in WW2 wore the same helmet, as well as satanic, even though Metal Mulisha is actually a Christian company run by Christians. It's interesting to see how society reacts to something extraordinary, no matter who or what it is. Yet, just like Metal Mulisha, I've risen above the slander and the bullies and will probably never change. I show off Metal Mulisha stuff with pride and without fear, like I do with a lot of my extreme sports stuff and Gadsden flags. Being different, change, and acceptance are the exact opposite of fascism after all.
